Rock & Roll Hall of Famer, Joe Perry of Aerosmith released his brand-new solo record titled “Sweetzerland Manifesto MKII” on Friday, May 26.

         “Sweetzerland Manifesto MKII” is the follow-up to his 2018 record titled “Sweetzerland Manifesto” which had notable rockers such as New York Dolls lead singer David Johansen, Cheap Trick lead singer, Robin Zander and Hollywood Vampires guitarist and actor, Johnny Depp.

This time around, Perry has recruited some of the same voices as the last record with Johansen, Zander, and Terry Reid returning as guest singers but this time around, Black Crowes lead singer Chris Robinson is featured as well as Extreme singer Gary Cherone. Cherone also sings with Joe Perry’s touring band, The Joe Perry Project.

“Sweetzerland Manifesto MKII” has 10 songs on the record and has a run time of 44 minutes which in all honesty, is a pretty solid run time for a record. I think it’s in that sweet spot between being too long but also too short.

There are a ton of really good songs on this record like the very first song. “Fortunate One” which is sung by Black Crowes frontman Chris Robinson.

If you can’t tell, I am very biased towards The Black Crowes which is why I enjoyed this song so much. I also think that Aerosmith frontman, Steven Tyler and Robinson have a similar style of singing which is why Robinson fits in well with Perry on this song. But overall, this song is really good. 

The second track on the song, “Quake” which is sung by Cherone is by far my favorite song on the record. It has a really groovy riff from Perry matched with a catchy chorus from Cherone. I could see this song being rerecorded by Aerosmith if they ever to record a new record or release a new single while they are on their final tour. If you are interested in reading about their last tour ever, click here.

Track three, “I’ll Do Happiness” which is sung by Cheap Trick lead singer, Robin Zander helps the record roll into having three strong songs to start the record but after that, it falls off a bit.

There are some okay songs in the middle of the record. Track four, “Aye, Aye, Aye” is pretty cool with a repetitive chorus of well… “Aye, Aye, Aye.”

There’s a bluesy instrumental as track number five titled, “Man With A Golden Arm,” which is followed up with “Time Will Tell” which, just like “Aye, Aye, Aye” is just okay, I wasn’t blown away by those three songs.

The final song that I enjoyed from this album was track nine, “Suck It Up,” which again features Zander managing lead vocals.

I really like Perry’s solo on this particular song and Zander’s voice and range fit perfectly with this song and the pace of this song.

Like the middle of the record, the last two songs, “Goes His Own Way,” and “Won’t Let Me Go” are other okay songs. They’re not as good as some of the songs that I’ve highlighted but they work on the record as a whole.

When I first learned that Joe Perry was releasing another solo record, I was really excited since I liked his other solo work and his work in Aerosmith, but I think this record in particular just didn’t quite reach the level of some of his other records.

I for one personally think that this record has a lot more okay songs than really good songs that stand out. Out of 10 songs, I would say that maybe at least six or maybe seven should be pretty good or great for the record overall to be a pretty great record.

As always, we will wrap up this review with The Singer’s Thoughts:

1. I feel like, in terms of solo material that Joe Perry is far from done and that he can use this record as a stepping stone to writing just better music and going back to the “meat and potatoes” style of songs.
2. Perry has never released a live record of just solo material or from a solo tour and I think that releasing one from the most recent tour would put some breathing room between this studio record and the next one.
3. I think coming up with a whole new album cover and name would do the next studio record some good. I associated  “Sweetzerland Manifesto MKII” with “Sweetzerland Manifest” and it didn’t live up to that previous record.

Overall Grade 6/10